Beholding Jesus - More

 

We ended last week with this verse from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church;

“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” 2 Cor 4:7

Genuine Christianity is learning to live by the indwelling Jesus- Christ-Messiah. The Christian life is the outflow of “Christ in you”, the breaking forth of God’s uncreated, indwelling life – the radiating of God’s own energy in fallen, human vessels. Seeing Christianity from this perspective changes everything.

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth, will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.” Helen H. Lemmel.

Behold the ill-starred Nazarene who went about “doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” Acts 10:38

Behold the artisan from Galilee, the one who called Himself the “Son of Man” (which means “son of Adam” – the human being”).

Watch Him as He is taken before Rome’s delegates in the city of Jerusalem. See Him standing before Pilate – rejected, dejected, bludgeoned, beaten, spat upon. Behold Him who created the heavens, the Lord of the universe, suffering the most horrific gruesome form of torture that was ever invented by the human imagination.

Observe Him hanging from a wooden stake, dying a slow, hideous death, covered with blood – naked, mocked, and shamed. The Messiah has become a public spectacle that elicits the spine-chilling gleeful laughter of satan himself.

Watch death, the child of sin, emerge from the pit. With open arms, it darkens the wood of the cross and takes the Prince of heaven into its silent hopeless domain.

The powers of Rome may have defeated the suffering artisan two thousand years ago, but in the end, He shall triumph. Christ shall subdue all things and put them under His feet, for upon that bloody hill, Jesus of Nazareth – the spotless, sinless man – defeated the powers of darkness and won for Himself the keys of death, hell and the grave. He is our Saviour. He saves in every situation and at all times. There is no circumstance too hard for Him.

By Jesus’ resurrection, God the Father vindicated Him before angels, demons, and the human race to be the universally triumphant, sovereign Lord. This same Jesus now sits at the right hand of power, as a faithful high priest, tirelessly interceding for His own in the presence of God. He lives by the power of an endless life, and He never fails.

And one day, every kingdom, every ruler, every principality and power shall bow their mortal knees to the rejected Nazarene.

He,

the Lamb of God John 1:29

the Lion of the tribe of Judah Rev 5:5

shall reign in regal glory over everything in, below, and above the earth, in heaven.

Phil 2:10-11

He shall be the judge of all creation, and His kingdom shall never end.

Matt 24:30,32; Psa 2:8; Dan 7:14; John 5:22; 2 Cor 5:10

In that day, Jesus the Nazarene shall be universally vindicated as ruler of the kings of the earth. Humanity will meet the power of glory face-to-face, for when He appears, the world will see His divinity, His beauty, His majestic splendour, His perfect righteousness and His complete holiness. He shall make crooked lines straight as the earth’s rightful judge. But more, all who follow Him today will share in the unveiled, unapproachable, indescribable radiance of God’s Son tomorrow – a greater glory than this world could ever comprehend.

Indeed it will be His time, and He will have the last word.

“Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven.

And everyone will see him—

even those who pierced him.

And all the nations of the world

will mourn for him.

Yes! Amen!” Rev 1:7

“The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,

and he will reign forever and ever.” Rev 11:15b

“He humbled himself in obedience to God

and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour

and gave him the name above all other names,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:8-11

How can you not love a Lord like that?

How can you not bow the knee to a God like that?

How can you not allow this radiant Lord to capture your heart and ravish your soul?

How can you not make Him your life’s pursuit for the rest of your days on this earth?

How can you not share, preach and teach anything else?

Look again at the craftsman from Nazareth.

Bow before Him, embrace Him, adore Him, and seek to know Him.

He is available and closer than you can imagine.

Jesus is your new tabernacle and temple.

If you really want to see God present, dwelling among us, if you genuinely want to worship God in all of His glory, if you truly want to receive that gift of wonder and see glimpses of diving glory, then come to Him.

Take your chances with the God of second chances.

Jesus didn’t just die to take you out of hell and into heaven.

He died to take Himself out of heaven and deposit Himself in to you.

Only a recovery of the greatness, supremacy, sovereignty, brilliance and “allness” of Jesus Christ Messiah will lead us to restoration and revival.

The wonder of Jesus as “all in all” is the only hope for igniting the flame of reformation, resuscitation and reconversion to Jesus as the awe-inspiring, all-inclusive person He is.

Jesus is our Lord and Saviour, but He is also so much more.

Jesus Christ Messiah is:

your Shepherd, your Advocate, your Mediator,

your Bridegroom, your Conqueror, your Lion,

your Lamb, your sacrifice, your manna,

your smitten Rock, your living water, your food,

your drink, your good and abundant land,

your dwelling place, your Sabbath, your new moon,

your Jubilee,         your new wine, your feast,

your aroma, your anchor, your wisdom,

your peace, your comfort, your Healer,

your joy, your glory, your power,

your strength,         your wealth,         your victory,

your redemption, your Prophet, your Priest,

your kinsman redeemer, your teacher, your guide,

your liberator, your deliverer, your Prince,

your Captain, your vision, your sight,

your beloved, your way, your truth,

your life, your author, your finisher,

your beginning, your end, your age,

your eternity – your all in all.

He is the same yesterday, today and forever; yet He is new every morning. But beyond all of this, He is our King, your judge and the True Witness.

Based on "Jesus Manifesto" by Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet

This weeks YouTube link with songs for worship is available here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULT4HDDsVHQ

Beholding Jesus

 

Let’s go back to the first century and take another look at our Lord. “Come and behold Him”.

We bless and are blessed as we “behold Him”, not as we boast of talents or do great things, but as “we look full In His wonderful face.”

As we each behold Jesus – gaze upon Him – Jesus is revealed more and more in our lives.

Watch Him at a wedding Cana. According to the custom of the day, the bridegroom was responsible for supplying the food and wine. You know the story. The wine ran out. This represented a social disgrace – a grave oversight on the part of the bridegroom.

Behold you Lord’s first miracle. He turns water into wine – but no ordinary wine. He creates a wine that is finer than the wine that had run out. In one brilliant stroke of compassion, Jesus Christ removes the bridegroom’s shame. He supplies the lack. He covers the mistake. He removes the disgrace. He reverses the failure. And He makes the bridegroom look like a champion. John 2:1-12

What a Messiah.

Watch Him as he encounters a battered, abused, shamed and forgotten woman. She’s the Samaritan of ill repute – a five-times divorcee. Your Lord breaks all social conventions by talking to her in public. But that’s not all. He shares with her one of the greatest truths that a human being can know. In addition, He breaks Jewish custom by using her utensils and eating with her friends in a Samaritan village (something Jews were forbidden to do). Here is a Lord who embraces a dejected woman and draws her and her friends to Himself. John 4:1-42

What a Christ.

Watch Him as He allows a prostitute to love Him in the house of a Pharisee. She pours expensive perfume on His feet, unbinds her hair and uses it as a towel to anoint His feet. Such an act is scandalous. The Pharisees move straight into judgement mode of Jesus and the woman. And what does the Lord do? He accepts the woman’s extravagant act of love and adoration and rebukes the finger-pointing Pharisee for his self-righteousness, saying, “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” To the woman he said “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.” Luke 7:47, 50

What a Messiah.

Watch Him as He sits before a woman caught in the act of adultery. See her with bleeding cuts in her body, dragged like a rag doll before a hungry mob of judgemental men, waiting for the first stone to crush her head and bring her to a death that she justly deserves. Behold your glorious Lord. He asks one question, a question that pierces the heart if every man who is ready to send this woman to her grave. Mesmerised by the Lord’s words, each man drops his stone and walks away. Jesus’s parting words to the guilty woman? “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” John 8:11

What a Saviour.

As we read the Gospel accounts, we cannot help but be awe-struck by the wonderful person they present. Yet the startling reality is that this same Radiance that we marvel at in the pages of our New Testaments has come to continue His life in and through us.

Genuine Christianity is learning to live by an indwelling Christ. Consequently, the Christian life can be reframed as God’s life come to earth and displayed visibly through human beings. The Christian life is the outflow of “Christ in you”, the breaking forth of God’s uncreated, indwelling life – the radiating of God’s own energy in fallen human vessels.

“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” 2 Cor 4:7

Based on The Jesus Manifesto - Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola

This weeks worship play list is available here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHnJn7EgQjAxZGdAW0Z7RooPBLy9czdT2

Receiving and Welcoming Jesus

 

During Jesus ministry He was rejected by His own people – the Jews.

“He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.” John 1:11

The religious leaders who dominated Jerusalem also rejected Him.

Remember how Jesus wept over the city because they refused to receive their Messiah?

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” Luke 13:34

Jesus was rejected by the Samaritans,

“As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival. But the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem.” Luke 9:51-53

And He was rejected by His home town of Nazareth,

“Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honoured everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family.” Mark 6:4

“Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.” Luke 9:58

There was one exception.

The only place where Jesus was welcome.

The tiny obscure village called Bethany – 2 miles east of Jerusalem.

It was the home of Mary, Martha, Lazarus and Simon the leper – Jesus’ friends.

In Jesus’ last week leading to His crucifixion, Jesus went to the city of Jerusalem in the day but he always returned to Bethany to spend the night. In Bethany He found refuge, rest, love and peace.

“As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.” Luke 10:38

Bethany and Martha’s home is the place where Jesus was utterly welcome.

The Greek original of this verse is even more specific. It says that Martha “welcomed him,” Jesus, into her home. The verb translated here as “welcome” means “to receive warmly and graciously.” By using this verb, Luke indicates that Martha did more than simply letting Jesus and his entourage stay in her home. Rather, she opened, not just the front door, but also her heart. No doubt, she offered Jesus an opportunity to rest and be refreshed. In fact, her effort to prepare a “big dinner” was part of her hospitality. Martha wanted Jesus to feel truly at home with her and her family.

What does it mean to receive and welcome the Lord Jesus?

It means giving Jesus the place of primacy – the first place – the only place.

It means giving Him absolute supremacy and sovereignty.

Jesus desires to be more than a guest in our lives

Receiving Christ also means receiving His entire ministry and all who belong to Him.

The Lord is looking for a place where He is completely received and fully welcomed.

Out of our love Jesus – in friendship and fellowship with Him – service will flow.

The secret of loving Jesus is to

sit at His feet,

listen to Him share His heart and

allow His life to be the Source of our service.

Jesus desires friends over servants, love over servitude.

“I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.” John 15:15

“Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’” Mark 12:29-30

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION:

When did you first welcome Jesus into your life?

Do you welcome him each day? Why or why not?

Are there parts of your life that are “off limits” to Jesus?

How might you welcome him more consistently and generously?

PRAYER:

Dear Lord, even as Martha once welcomed you into her home, I want to receive you in my life. I want to throw open the door and embrace you. I want to give you the best place in my life. I want you to be fully at home with me.

I do want all of these things, Lord. But, I must confess, there are times when I keep you knocking at the door. There are other times when I let you in, but don’t pay attention to you. And then there are times when I allow you to come into my life, but do not give you run of the house. Forgive me, Lord, when I am an ungracious host to you.

O Lord, may I welcome you fully, eagerly, and without restraint. May I welcome you, not only into the tidy living room, but also into the messy places of my life. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus! Amen.

Based on Jesus Manifesto, Lonard Sweet and Frank Viola

This weeks worship play list is available here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHnJn7EgQjAyr9zLWrGvm_ClXMeS9OLZ_

Digging Deeper

Mark 4:1-20 The Parable of the Sower

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,

“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,

and ever hearing but never understanding;

otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

We are living in difficult times. And the future is unknown.

It’s vital that we nurture our relationship with Jesus Christ and persevere and press into knowing Him on a regular basis.

We are like the seeds that the farmer sows in the field.

For any relationship to flourish, there must be intentional time spent for communication and presence. This is so very true in our relationship with Christ.

We need to be intentional about regularly reading or listening to God’s written Word. This is one of the primary ways that we hear from Him and can know His will.

If we ignore time reading (or listening) to God’s written Word we will easily be influenced by other voices (whether they be the voice of our own self-seeking thoughts, the unrelenting narrative of the world, or even the voice of the enemy).

We also cultivate our relationship with Jesus through prayer. Prayer is communication with Jesus and is direct fellowship with Him.

If we neglect our relationship Jesus, we’ll eventually shrivel up spiritually. Our lives will be overtaken by “the cares of this life,” “the lust/desire for other things,” and “the deceitfulness of money” – all of which choke out God’s life (Mark 4:19).

We need to have ongoing conversation with the Lord throughout the day, as well as specific times set apart to talk to Him, listen, and be in His presence.

This can even be done while walking or driving.

As a supplement to the Frank Viola book, INSURGENCE: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, a series of articles that were not originally included in the book as chapters are available on the website. Have a read of this chapter “AWARE OF HIS PRESENCE,” which you can read HERE. (Follow the link to download the article https://insurgencebook.com/Aware.pdf )

The challenge for you this week is three-fold:

1. Make a fresh commitment to re-engage your relationship to Christ and deepen it.
2. Carve out a time when you can read or listen to God’s Word throughout the week.
3. Schedule a time when you can talk to the Lord and give Him your undivided attention during the week.

Don’t let your relationship with Him slip.

In other words, be intentional about feeding your relationship with Jesus.

This weeks worship playlist is available here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHnJn7EgQjAyr3sWYWo6MpB9NXnTP6u4k

Have a good week

Jacquey